


The Boat

by TT_Angst_Queen



Series: Talk, Don't Speak [2]
Category: Bull (TV 2016), NCIS
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Possibly Pre-Slash, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-29 16:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13931187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TT_Angst_Queen/pseuds/TT_Angst_Queen
Summary: "You know, It was Kelly's idea to make the first boat..."





	The Boat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheSleepyProducer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSleepyProducer/gifts).



 

 

* * *

 

 

The last Time Gibbs had been at this cabin was after Kate had died, and he had Killed Ari. He remembered being furious that Jenny had tried to force him to put that Mossad officer on his team. He had refused and gone to SecNav with his concerns on adding a foreign agent to a high profile team that dealt with matters of national security, and highly classified cases and information.

 

SecNav had been appalled that Jenny had tried to sneak the Scoin of Eli David onto his best and most high profile investigative team. He had immediately ordered Jen to be evaluated, and upon discovery of a brain tumor, she was quietly removed from her position, luckily the public wasn't aware that she had ever been Director of NCIS. Leon Vance had been put in her place.

 

Leon had put what was left on Gibbs’ team on grievance leave, and told them he would take the time to read through the teams files thoroughly; he didn't want to make the mistake Jenny did and take things at face value.

 

Gibbs had taken his stuff and disappeared for a month, in which he stayed at his cabin, and fished, took care of the garden, and painted. His favorite thing about going to the cabin is that he could paint to his heart's content, without having to worry about what anybody would think if they saw big tough hardass Leroy Jethro Gibbs painting watercolors.

 

Gibbs knew that when he brought Ton-Jason, to his cabin, that a lot of his secrets would be revealed, and any that weren't he would have to talk about.

He had some reservations at first, but this was his best friend, a man he had known for longer than he had even known Shannon.

 

Seventeen years.

 

Gibbs had known Shannon for eleven, married nine.

 

He trusted Ton-Jason with his life, and with his heart. He always had.

 

So why was he sitting on the porch swing in the early morning light, sipping a Coffee, while trying to figure out ways of getting around _talking_ to T-Jason? Gibbs was no coward; he didn’t run away when things got tough.

 

But was that really true?

 

He had left, he admitted to himself, after he had come out of his second coma all those years ago. He had left when he realized that despite the Government’s outward face, they were just as bad as some of the criminals Gibbs had hunted down- willing to sacrifice so many innocent lives so they wouldn’t have to admit to the public of their own fuck-ups.

 

So was it a true statement? He didn’t want to think so, but past evidence…

 

“Guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

 

Flinching at the unexpected voice, Gibbs met the apologetic eyes of Jason Bull, who sat beside him. Still in his sleeping clothes, hair mussed and sticking up everywhere, glasses a little crooked on his face, Gibbs couldn’t help but find the younger man a bit adorable like this.

 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” Jason chuckled. “My team always complains they need to buy me a bell, I think I got it from you.”

 

Gibbs found himself stuck on one part of the sentence.

 

“Team? You a part of another agency?” Gibbs couldn't help but be sceptical; not to be rude, but in the shape Jason was in, Gibbs couldn’t see him passing a federal agency physical at all, at least, the exercise portion- Gibbs had no doubt that the man was just as strong as he once was, which was very.

“No, God no,” Jason grimace. “I uh, hmm,” Jason looked like he didn’t know how to say something, and it made Gibbs curious.

 

“I run a trial consulting firm, I, and my team, work on manipulating the jury to rule in our client's favor.” Jason smiled at Gibbs furrowed brow. “Before you get all huffy at me, I only take on cases where I know my client is innocent, Gibbs.”

 

“And how do you know that they’re innocent?”

 

Jason coughed and looked uncomfortable for the first time Gibbs had seen since he picked him up at the airport.

 

“Remember when I said I changed my name to Jason Bull?”

 

Gibbs nodded and raised an eyebrow.

 

“Technically my full title is _Doctor_ Jason Bull, PhD.”

 

“You’re a _shrink_?” Gibbs asked incredulously.

 

Gibbs was shocked; of all of the things Gibbs had thought Tony might have done after leaving, being a shrink wasn’t one of them!

“Well,” Jason huffed, raising an eyebrow at Gibbs, “I would prefer Phycologist, Jethro, but yes, I am.”

 

Gibbs couldn’t help it, he laughed, then stopped at Jason’s hurt look.

 

“What, You don’t think I’m smart enough to be a Doctor?”

 

Gibbs couldn’t help this either; Jason’s head rocked forward instinctively, even though the head slap wasn’t hard enough to hurt, just a wake-up call.

 

“You know me better than that, DiN-Bull,” Gibbs growled, “You know I’m fully aware that you’re way smarter than you ever showed anyone else. I was just shocked that the man who hated shrinks and could fool them in order to avoid them would become one.”

 

Jason nodded, the sparkle back in his eyes.

 

“And having that talent became handy when I earned my Ph.D., besides,” Jason smirked, “This visit of mine isn’t about me, Jethro.”

 

“I know,” Gibbs grumbled, and Jason smirked.

 

“You know,” Jason said casually, “You’re feet are pointed toward the lake, you’re ready to run. Classic sign, Jethro. But you can’t run forever, your demons will follow you and catch up eventually.”

 

Gibbs didn’t respond, choosing instead to sip his now lukewarm coffee. Gazing out at the lake and the slowly rising sun reflecting on the calm, clear water like bloody diamonds. The silence stretched out, the only noises were of nature and their breathing.  Gibbs briefly thought that the T-Jason of old would try to fill the silence with chatter and jokes, but Gibbs was beginning to realize the To-Jason of old wasn’t here anymore, and Doctor Jason Bull had replaced Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo.

 

“Kelly was the one who started me on making the boats.” The silence was broken by Gibbs words, and instead of Jason replying to the words, as Gibbs expected, he sat back and began to listen intently.

 

The early morning chirps of birds and crickets relaxed Jethro, and he began to open memories he had long since buried.

 

“We, that is, Shannon and I, wanted to stop spending money on renting a boat and decided to buy one. Kelly was four, and she overheard us talking about the high prices on even a small boat,” Gibbs smirked. “Kelly, being four years old and smart as a whip, asked why we couldn’t just build one,” Gibbs sighed, looking at the small boat bobbing in the water, faded paint from days in the sun bright and cheerful, his little girls' voice running through his head.

 

_“Just make one daddy! Maddie’s daddy made her a house!”_

 

Gibbs smiled, remembering how he could never refuse his daughter anything. He had wondered how in the hell he was going to give his daughter that boat. He had never built a boat in his life, but for his little girl, he would build an ark.

 

“We spent hours in the basement, Shan’, Kell’s and I, making that boat over there.” and it was some of the fondest memories he had of his girls. “Kelly was only four, couldn’t do more than sand for an hour before she got tired, but Shannon would always take her up to bed and come back down, and work with me. She would work for another hour, then sit on the bottom step, watching me work on my little girls' boat.” Gibbs laughed.

 

“Funny, when years later a cocky ex-cop sits on that step, the first thing that runs through my head is that he belonged there when every ex-wife who dared sit there before him got a glare and a boot out the door.”

 

Gibbs noticed the small smile on Jason’s lips.

 

“You always asked me how I got the boat out of the basement,” Jason leaned forward, looking eager.

 

“I replied once to someone that I break the bottle. Truth is-” Gibbs chuckled, but this time it was darker. “The only boat I ever got out of that basement was Kelly’s. Franks boat was taken apart and put back together in Mexico. But the rest… I burnt them. Destroyed them. I couldn’t bear to look at another finished boat and sail something that was made with my hands and not mine and my girls.”

 

Gibbs stopped _talking_ , and Jason realized that Gibbs was done _talking_ about his boat.

 

“Thank you for _talking_ , Jethro.” Jason smiled.

 

“Do you feel up for some breakfast?”

 

“Does it include coffee?”

 

Jason laughed.

 

“Of course, Jethro.”

 

   

 

    


End file.
